Focus Estate Fund acquired Most Retail Park located in Most (Czech Republic) with 6,471 m² of retail space. This is Focus Estate's third investment in European commercial real estate. The investment fund previously bought Ostrava Retail Park (Ostrava, Czech Republic) and Galeria Sandomierz (Sandomierz, Poland).
The seller of the property TK Development (Denmark) was represented by Dentons. The buyer was backed by Kocián Šolc Balaštík (KSB) and BDO, while the funding was partly obtained from Raiffeisen Bank.
Mogens Pedersen, General Manager, TK Development: «The sale fits into our strategy as a development company to sell retail projects, and in this case, to a professional real estate investment fund who will bring the asset to the next level and develop it further».
«This is our first asset with a relatively high vacancy rate. Hence we face the challenge to reconceptualise and improve the property in order to increase the profit margin to 12-15%. First of all, we need to increase the visual and physical accessibility from the adjacent traffic routes and magnets of the area. We are in coordination with the town's mayor's office and the works are already underway. Our key focus is to increase the customer flows and turnovers of the tenants», said Maxim Shkolnick, Partner at Focus Estate Fund.
Ing. Martin Kubin, Senior consultant, Retail Warehousing, Cushman &Wakefield: «We’ve recently entered into the partnership with Focus Estate Fund to lease Most Retail Park and we are already in negotiations with well-known lessees. We have reasons to be optimistic since we have successfully worked with major brands all around the Czech Republic and believe that the new property management and leasing strategy in Most Retail Park would establish a sustainable leasing and shopping demand».
